In the third quarter of 2025, Sony Music Publishing scored a three-peat as the No. 1 publisher on both the Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 Songs charts for the first three quarters of 2025.

This time around, Sony received a boost from having the top song on both charts, Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” and the No. 1 songwriter on both charts, Shane “sombr” Boose, who wrote and performed “undressed,” which was No. 7 and No. 22 on Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 Songs, respectively. (Sony administers sombr for Songs of Orchard.)

They were two of the 75 songs that Sony had on Top Radio Airplay in the third quarter, up from 73 in the second quarter. The publisher had stakes in 69 tracks on the Hot 100 Songs chart, down from 75 in the prior quarter. For both rankings, its market share was down slightly from the second quarter, from 30.90% to 30.76% on Top Radio Airplay and 33.88% to 30.10% on Hot 100 Songs.

Meanwhile, Warner Chappell Music held the No. 2 spot on both rankings for a second consecutive quarter, with 23.67% on Top Radio Airplay and 22.32% on Hot 100 Songs. Both shares were improvements on the publisher’s second-quarter shares of 21.66% and 21.57%, respectively. And while its song count improved from 62 to 64 on Top Radio Airplay, its tally fell from 57 to 52 on Hot 100 Songs. Warner Chappell’s top track on both charts was also “Ordinary.” In addition, Warner Chappell was the No. 1 publisher on the Top Country Radio Airplay list.

Universal Music Publishing Group ranked at No. 3 on both charts, with its Top Radio Airplay market share sliding from 16.79% to 14.79% and its Hot 100 Songs share dipping from 18.56% to 16.62% quarter to quarter. UMPG held stakes in 46 songs on Top Radio Airplay, down one from the second quarter, and its top track was Shaboozey’s “Good News,” which ranked at No. 2. On Hot 100 Songs, its count improved from 50 to 52, with its top track, “Golden” by HUNTR/X from KPop Demon Hunters, also ranking at No. 2.

Kobalt and BMG alternated at Nos. 4 and 5 on both charts, finishing in that order on Top Radio Airplay with 11.24% and 5.28% of the pie and swapping places on Hot 100 Songs: BMG finished fourth with 12.75% — a massive increase from its 3.24% second- quarter share — and Kobalt was fifth with 8.83%.

Kobalt’s song count improved on both charts, growing to 42 in the third quarter from 39 in the prior pro quarter on the Top Radio Airplay list and to 35 from 32 on the Hot 100 chart. Its top song on the former was “Good News,” while its top song on the latter was Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want” featuring Tate McRae, which ranked at No. 3. BMG also had “Good News” as its top performing song on the Radio Airplay list, where its song count fell to 14 tunes from the second quarter’s 16 songs; while on the Hot 100, its song count improved from the second quarters’ 32 songs to 35, with “Golden” as its top song.

Looking at the bottom half of the Radio Airplay publisher rankings, three publishers returned from the second quarter: Big Machine, which moved up to No. 6 from No. 10 last time with a 1.75% share; Concord, which fell one position to No. 8 but improved its market share by 13 basis points to 1.40%; and Position Music, which fell one spot to No. 9 but enjoyed a bigger 18-point basis surge to 1.39%. The top song for both Big Machine and Concord was Russell Dickerson’s “Happen To Me,” which ranked at No. 10, while Position’s Music top performing song was Benson Boone’s “Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else,” which finished at No. 6.

In the third quarter, two publishers that were absent from the Q2 rankings made the top 10: Spirit Music, with a 1.46% share from three song placements on the chart, including its top performing song, Scotty McCreery’s “Bottle Rockets” featuring Hootie & the Blowfish, at No. 20; and Me Gusta Music with a 0.96% share and three song placements on the chart with Luke Bryan’s “Country Song Came On” as its top performer at No. 34.

In the bottom half of the Hot 100 ranking, only two publishers repeated from the second quarter: Position Music and Concord. The former came in at No. 6 with a 1.64% share, the same ranking as the prior quarter; while the latter finished at No. 7 with a 1.07% share, up from No. 10 last quarter. Position’s top song was Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” at No. 14, while Concord’s top tune was Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild,” at No. 4.

Meanwhile, three publishers that were absent from last quarter’s Hot 100 rankings appeared in the top 10 this quarter. Coming in at No. 8 was Spirit Music with a 0.63% share, with McCreery “Bottle Rockets” featuring Hootie & the Blowfish its top song at No. 40. In ninth place with a 0.55% share was Big Machine, whose top song, Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want” with Tate McRae, placed at No. 3. And in tenth place, Downtown finished with a 0.51% share on the strength of its sole placement on the Hot 100 ranking, Dareyes de La Sierra’s “Frecuencia,” which was the No. 85 song on the tally. Of the three, Spirit had the highest song count with five placements, while Big Machine had a stake in three of the quarter’s Hot 100 songs.

**Methodology: For the Top 10 Publishers Top Radio Airplay chart, percentage calculations were based upon the overall top 100 detected songs from 3,133 U.S. radio stations electronically monitored by Mediabase 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the period of July 1 to Sept. 30. For Top 10 Publishers Hot 100 Songs, percentage calculations were based upon the top 100 songs ranked by Billboard Hot 100 points calculated from digital sales, streaming and Mediabase-tracked radio airplay detections during the period of June 27 to Oct. 4 and reflecting the issue dates of July 12 through Oct. 4. Publisher information for musical works on both charts has been identified by the Harry Fox Agency. A “publisher” is defined as an administrator, copyright owner and/or controlling party.**

Previous Quarter:

After the disappointing cancellation of Aerosmith’s Peace Out: The Farewell Tour 15 months ago, Joe Perry did not foresee he and bandmate Steven Tyler getting back in the saddle very quickly — and certainly not with the first new Aerosmith music in 13 years.

So the guitarist regards the Friday (Nov. 21) arrival of One More Time, a five-song EP in collaboration with British rocker Yungblud, as nothing short of — as the song says — amazing.

“I think it’s great,” Perry tells Billboard about the project, whose first single, “My Only Angel,” went No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart and hit No. 7 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. “It’s certainly nothing we had planned. We really didn’t. It was pretty traumatic, what happened; we’ve had to cancel gigs before, but this was a big one. This was arguably the biggest tour we had ever mounted, and to have it collapse like that… was heartbreaking. It was almost more than we could get over. After the dust settled and we realized touring wasn’t gonna be part of our repertoire, it’s also a time where (we realized) there’s so many other ways to be creative in this entertainment business.”

In the wake of all that, the unexpected Yungblud hook-up came out of a confluence of connections.

The Peace Out tour played just three dates in September 2023 before being postponed due to Tyler’s vocal cord injury. It was rescheduled to begin a year later but was formally scrapped in August 2024, with Aerosmith announcing their retirement from touring. Larry Rudolph, who manages Aerosmith and Tyler for 724 Management, recalls that after that, “Joe called me and said, ‘I expected to be on tour this whole time. Now I’m sitting around in Florida, bored. If anything comes up for me to play on, I’m open.’ I said, ‘Cool, I’ll ask around a little bit.’”

As fate would have it, Rudolph’s son Gavin, who’s also part of 724, was friendly with Yungblud (real name Dominic Harrison) and his manager, Tommas Amby of Locomotion Entertainment. He learned Yungblud was a big Aerosmith fan who was up to collaborate with Perry – though Perry acknowledges he didn’t know a great deal about the upstart.

“It was like, ‘Hey, this guy wants to come over and hook up with you and get in the studio. It was vague,” Perry remembers. “I started watching some of his performances, and people were talking about him. I’d heard his name somewhere; he’s been at it for awhile in Europe, so I recognized his name but I really didn’t put it together.” Perry says Yungblud’s cover of Kiss’ “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” from The Fall Guy soundtrack and a few videos on YouTube led him to feel “this guy bears further looking into.”

Curiosity helped spur the meet-up as well. “When I heard they wanted to come over and hang out for a couple of days and maybe get something for his next album…I figured it would be fun to work with him, see how this generation is actually recording and how they work. The whole thing was just interesting. I had time, and they came in and we definitely hit it off.”

Yungblud and his producer Matt Schwartz — who helmed the high-energy EP and co-wrote its four original songs — met with Perry in Sarasota, Flor., during the summer of 2024 and worked on a handful of tracks that have yet to be revealed. But the session laid the groundwork for what was to come. “We spent a few days with (Perry) and had a great time, did a few bits,” Schwartz says. “It was a dream come true for us.”

Perry recalls that, “It was like the first time I met Post Malone; I just got a vibe, ‘This kid’s got it.’ He definitely has an energy, and he loves rock n’ roll. He loves that classic thing, and he loves being on stage and cutting loose…We only had three or four days to get to know each other, but I heard what I needed to hear. It was like, ‘Oh, yeah, next time you have some time…’ and the next thing was we had these songs on our hands.”

Rudolph says Yungblud next pitched having Perry and Tyler join him on “Hello Heaven, Hello,” the lead track and first single from Idols, which is up for best rock album at the 2026 Grammys. Perry had informed Tyler about his experience with Yungblud in Sarasota, and all concerned gathered during mid-May at Johnny Depp’s studio in Los Angeles. “It was like a love fest,” Rudolph reports. “Once it was the three of them in the room, every was calling me, saying, ‘It’s magic. These guys are just loving each other, and now they’re working on new material.’ They sent me what became ‘My Only Angel’ and I was like, ‘Holy sh-t! That’s a legitimate hit,’ and then they wrote one or two others and there was a conversation about maybe putting this all together as a standalone project,” which evolved into One More Time.

Schwartz, meanwhile, confirms that, “We just got on like a house on fire. Dom’s very energetic, like ADD energetic…He and (Tyler) are very complementary. When we did the first session, Dom was really encouraging him — ‘Come on, let’s do this together, and that!’ It was infectious. And Steven just went in and did it and everyone in the room was, clapping, like, ‘Oh. My. God.’ Things just happened really quickly, and organically. Everything just landed. Every idea we had came out on this EP, which is rare. We were just inspired by their presence, their aura, whatever you call it. It was just amazing, the whole process.”

Tyler and Yungblud both wound up performing at the Back to the Beginning concert for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath on July 5 in Birmingham, England — the latter releasing a single of his rendition of the band’s “Changes.”

“We got to hear all the stories that were absolutely incredible from Joe and Steven,” Schwartz adds. “What rock life used to be like before socials and everything else. I’m still pinching myself to think we’ve been spending all this time together with those two.”

Equally organic was the addition of Steve Martin on banjo for “My Only Angel (Desert Road Edition).” “We did this acoustic version,” Schwartz recalls, “and I said, ‘I’d like to try banjo on it, why not?’ And Steven goes, ‘Hey, why don’t we call Steve Martin?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, why don’t we.’ (laughs) The next thing you know Steve Martin sends me over this banjo part that was amazing, and he said, ‘Should I go record it?’ I said, ‘It’s done. You already recorded it.’ He’s like, ‘What? I did it on my phone!’ But it sounded amazing, and Steve Martin’s on the record as well.”

As to determining what Aerosmith should sound like 13 years after its last album, Music From Another Dimension!, Schwartz explains that “the easiest trap with Aerosmith is to go for the ballads, which we know and love. But they’ve got ‘Sweet Emotion,’ so many other records that are phenomenal. We tried to go back to the ‘70s rather than the later era and tried to be inspired by those moments. The main thing was to make sure it sounded authentic. The whole idea was to push things forward — take things from the past and bring them forward as if they were done today.”

Work on the EP went into October, Schwartz says, with “Wild Woman” as the last of the original songs written. “Back in the Saddle (2025 Mix),” meanwhile, was the idea of Perry’s wife Billie and is the only track to include Aerosmith’s other classic members — Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer, whose parts were taken from the original recording and mixed with new contributions from Tyler, Perry and Yungblud. Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, the Cult) plays drums on the four originals.

“That was nerve-racking,” Schwartz says of the remake. “I didn’t want to overly change it, or completely transform it. I wanted it to sound like what would’ve happened if we recorded it today in a studio, with today’s approach and technology. When you listen to it, it’s supposed to be a similar feeling — just modern.”

Rudolph adds that “Back in the Saddle” solidifies the Aerosmith imprimatur on the endeavor. “We very much consider it an Aerosmith project versus a Steven and Joe side project,” he explains, “in the sense that Steven and Joe are Aerosmith and that ‘Back in the Saddle’ is on it, with everybody playing. The intention is that moving forward, if and when, we’ll certainly get Tom and Brad involved. Joey’s sort of retired from playing with the band. But it’s all very fluid at this point.”

There is every intent on moving forward, it seems.

Schwartz says that Tyler, Perry and Yungblud — who performed together at this year’s MTV Music Video Awards — “started a new song” after the EP’s four original tracks were done. “We haven’t completely finished it, but it’s really exciting.” Perry certainly sounds game as well. “The obvious (thing) is maybe we can go in and write some more music. I haven’t really talked to Steven about it, but I know that in our conversations over the last couple of months the words, ‘We’re never gonna do this again’ never came up, so that’s a good sign. I guess that’s part of the adventure; I’m too young to retire…(and) I know he’s got more in him. We’ll see.”

Rudolph — who’d be counseled by a predecessor that Aerosmith would never make new music again — says One More Time has given both band and brand a jolt of new excitement, and purpose. “Listen, they have an album called Nine Lives — I think they’re proving, living out that title at this point,” he says. “They’ve been around for 55 years as a band. It doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere any time soon. This (EP) turned out so far above and beyond whatever expectations we had going into it. It was supposed to be the guys just going in and featuring on Dom’s single. And now it’s a whole new Aerosmith record.”

The filming of the two Wicked movies sounds like an exhausting, exhilarating and super-intense adventure. It’s been clear watching the cast stump for the just-released sequel, Wicked: For Good, that the actors and actresses in the film got super close and realized they were a part of something that was a cultural event, as well as a life-changing moment for all of them.

“We knew immediately that we were stepping into something that was quite special because it already has this beautiful legacy behind it,” Cynthia Erivo told Seth Meyers on his late night show on Thursday (Nov. 20). After begging off red carpet interviews earlier this week because of a hoarse throat — with co-star Ariana Grande also offering to stay mute in solidarity —  Erivo said the cast and crew knew that the had to do the story “justice” given how beloved the original Broadway production, and the 1995 book it was based on, are to the many fans of the story around the world.

“And it seems like you all genuinely like each other,” Meyers observed. “We do, yeah… no we really like each other,” Erivo said with a wicked, eyes-narrowed look at the camera after Meyers suggested that it might just be good acting, or a combo of that and genuine affection.

Noting that earlier in the week another Wicked: For Good cast member, Jonathan Bailey, told him that he couldn’t stop crying while watching the movie with his niece, Meyers asked how Erivo reacted to seeing part two on the screen. “The first time I watched it… this happens every time — I watched the first movie and I couldn’t see anything. I was really overwhelmed,” Erivo said of last year’s blockbuster first part of the two-part epic movie musical.

“Then I watched it a second time and then I can finally take it in,” she said. “This time around again, I was lie, ‘This is great. I love this.’ But I knew I wasn’t taking it in properly. The second time I saw it, I wept. Like, fell to my knees and wept, couldn’t stop crying.”

Meyers also asked Erivo what it feels like to suddenly be a reliable Halloween meme, posting a series of pics of young girls and women dressed as her green-skinned character Elphaba. He then busted out a much-shared snap of the ultimate tribute: a fan dressed as one of Erivo’s signature long, bedazzled fingernails. Asked if she’d seen the photo, Erivo said it’s been shown to her “100 million times,” and praised the “wonderful person” in the towering costume for their unrelenting commitment to the bit. “I was elated,” she said of her initial reaction to the outfit she said totally nailed it.

Wicked: For Good is in theaters now.

Watch Erivo on Late Night below.

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

This week: Getting Closer to the full picture with Tate McRae, flying high again with the Wicked: For Good soundtrack and hearing Stray Kids Do It to ’em one more time.

Tate McRae, So Close to What??? (Deluxe Edition)

“Don’t know what country I’m in, but I know how I’m feeling,” testifies Tate McRae to kick off “Trying on Shoes,” the first track on her newly reissued So Close to What??? — yes, now with three question marks — deluxe edition. It feels like a snapshot release for the still-rising superstar, with some of the most detailed writing and specifically pitched performances of her career. Likely adding inspiration: Her recent split with fellow pop hitmaker The Kid LAROI, who of course is thought to be the subject of her top five Billboard Hot 100 hit “Tit for Tat,” and who appears to make his presence felt here a couple additional times, particularly on the spiteful “Anything But Love” (“My dad hates you, my dog hates you, my brother hates you, and I do too…”)

Wicked Movie Cast, Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande, Wicked: For Good — The Soundtrack

Happy Wicked: For Good release day, everyone! The much-anticipated second half to the John M. Chu-helmed film adaptation of the legendary musical — whose first half was greeted with robust box office and major acclaim, particularly for stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande — is out now, along with the 11-track soundtrack. Of particular note for fans in this back half is the introduction of two brand-new songs to the musical’s world, penned by original composer Steven Schwartz: the bitter-but-resilient Erivo solo “No Place Like Home,” and the soaring Grande showcase “The Girl in the Bubble.”

Stray Kids, DO IT

It’s only been three months since Stray Kids released fourth Korean-language studio album Karma, but the octet is back this week with new release DO IT. The five-track release is being officially branded as a mixtape — the group’s first since last year’s Billboard 200-topping HOP — and features two versions of its explosive title track. The big question for chartwatchers with DO IT: Will this be the release that knocks Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, currently in the midst of a six-week run atop the Billboard 200, from its No. 1 perch? History would certainly say not to bet against the group, who in seven charting releases has never missed the top spot.

Tainy & Karol G, “Ünica”

After dropping her Tropicoqueta album in June, Latin pop superstar Karol G is checking in at leat one more time before the end of the year, with “Ünica,” her new collaboration with A-list producer Tainy. The song, whose title of course means “Unique” in Spanish, Karol recalls a night of passion that still burns singularly in her memory, casting any past or future lovers in its shadow. The song’s gentle reggaetón shuffle is augmented by some lovely harp plucking, and backing vocals that seem to be sighing in agreement.

BigXthaPlug, I Hope You’re Happy (Deluxe)

A couple days after making his CMA Awards debut, rapper BigXthaPlug is back with the deluxe edition to his first full-length country release, I Hope You’re Happy. The set adds three new songs: the hard-hearted “Cold” with fellow recent country convert Post Malone (which feels like it could be “All the Way” Pt. 2), the acoustic, fame-ruing “Holy Ground” alongside top 40 regular Jessie Murph, and the set’s first totally solo track, triumphant closer “From the Bottom” — which drops most of the Nashville, but ends by reminding: “I just made me some millions off country.”

The Kid LAROI, “A Perfect World”

What timing: Right as Tate McRae releases her So Close to What??? deluxe — with multiple Earth-salting tracks firmly turning her back on her past relationship — here comes The Kid LAROI, perhaps dreaming about a reconciliation: “In a perfect world/ We’d have it all figured out, baby, you would be my girl.” It’s not exactly a take-me-back song, but it’s definitely an I’ll-stick-around-just-in-case ballad, as LAROI reminds his ex, “Coz I’m still here, for what it’s worth, baby.” Hopefully he’s not checking out Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist this week.